Local food bank cuts ties with Feeding America network
SAN ANGELO, Texas (Concho Valley Homepage) — The Concho Valley Regional Food Bank has cut ties with the nation-spanning Feeding America network, a move that the local organization claims will help it be less restricted.
In an announcement issued to the public on April 8, the regional food bank stated that it had formally ceased its partnership with the San Antonio Food Bank.
Prior to the severance, CVRFB served for four years as an affiliate of the San Antonio Food Bank. However, a difference in the banks’ priorities and plans resulted in a divide between the two that would ultimately lead to them parting ways with each other.
“We would run food distributions and programming out of our facility essentially just like a normal food bank,” Sarah Eckel, outreach and development director of CVRFB, said. “But last year, San Antonio Food Bank asked to redefine our relationship and to narrow the scope of what we did and how we were serving the community, and over the past six months we realized that we were unable to find a compatible vision.”
In cutting ties with the San Antonio Food Bank, the organization has also removed itself from Feed America’s national network of charities. The regional bank is confident that the departure is a step in the right direction, however.
“This move allows CVRFB to be more flexible in how it serves our neighbors and works with community partners,” CVRFB Executive Director Brent Jenkins said. “We are excited as we move forward.”
CVRFB has already begun to utilize its newfound freedom in its programming, which includes partnerships with local food pantries, direct client food distribution and several food distribution initiatives.
“It gives us an opportunity to really tailor our approach to the community and respond to the needs that are being presented to us instead of being forced into a box and being told how we can or cannot serve our neighbors in the Concho Valley,” Eckel said.
CVRFB has operated in the Concho Valley since 1983, where it has served 13 counties as part of its mission to “nourish the hope of ending hunger in the Concho Valley by connecting our neighbors experiencing hunger to food.”
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